These local headlines tell the story. Twelve days ago, Paraíso de Dios, or God’s Paradise, got a new park. Everybody was at the grand opening – local officials, ministers, families and the local press. Children played, women danced. It was festive.

Why so much rejoicing over a new park? Well, because the park represents a fresh start for the community plagued with an extraordinarily high level of lead contamination.

The park was once a highly polluted plot of land. Just running around barefoot could get children poisoned. Whereas the soil used to contain 11,400 to 463,970 parts per million of lead, it now tests at only 10 to 300 parts per million of lead after Blacksmith-led cleanup efforts. This is a level considered safe in the U.S.

Blacksmith Technical Advisory Board member Dr. Ian von Lindern was there to witness the celebration and to push through further cleanup efforts. After all, the park is only the start of what the local press have been calling the “green zone.”

Dr. von Lindern told me that the Mayor of Haina, where God’s Paradise is located, has agreed to continue working with us. The successful cleanup has energized everyone. A Blacksmith team is scheduled to return to the Dominican Republic in the next six weeks to begin planning the remaining cleanup and to continue testing children for lead.

Today a park, tomorrow the entire city. Slowly, God’s Paradise is moving away from the label of “Dominican Chernobyl” and closer to its namesake.

Bravo! Not only is this a wonderful outcome for the people of Paraiso de Dios, it is a stellar example of a public/private partnership, community engagement and coalition building. Now where is someone interested in taking on the story for a case study or dissertation so the example can be replicated around the world?

Your forgot the promotion of Mercury lamps in South Africa ,43 million issued free of charge to indigents to save electricity by our main Coal fired power supplier. These get dumped on landfill sites whichi drains into rivers.In addtion to the tons of mercury vapour genrqated by such power stations.

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The Blacksmith Institute Pollution blog puts the spotlight on one of the biggest, yet most underreported, global problems – toxic pollution. Over 100 million people are at risk in some of the world’s worst polluted places. - Read More